


Sometimes Things Happen [Commission]

by HaroThar



Category: Homestuck
Genre: A/B/O, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha/Omega, Alternate Universe - No Game, If you're here for sex you are Wrong., Other, Pale Romance | Moirallegiance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-22
Updated: 2017-11-22
Packaged: 2019-02-05 13:03:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12795153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HaroThar/pseuds/HaroThar
Summary: Nepeta and Equius are in an established moirallegiance, and naturally that doesn't change when it turns out that Nepeta is an alpha and Equius is an omega. It just means there's an extra layer to their dynamic now.





	Sometimes Things Happen [Commission]

**Author's Note:**

> My first commissioned piece of writing! Shoutout to [mensesbloodbath](http://mensesbloodbath.tumblr.com/) for being willing to pay me for my shit :3

_“We’ll probably both just end up as betas,” Equius said. It was an interesting balance, the hope for alpha, the dread for omega, and the likelihood of beta. Nepeta, in all her exuberant energy and straightforward thoughts, was less inclined to balance her hopes and fears and the more elusive art form of rationality._

_“We could both be alphas. It’d fit you well, you’re always so bossy.”_

_“We shouldn’t get our hopes up too high.”_

_“You’re always such a_ downer!” __

 _“I’m being_ logical _about this. 60% of the population falls into the beta category, it’s mathematically improbable for either of us to be anything special.”_

 _“Well fuck that noise._ I’m _going to be an alpha.”_

_“You can’t possibly know that until second pupation actually hits, Nepeta.”_

__“You can’t possibly know that until second pupation hits, Nepeta,” _Nepeta echoed mockingly back._

_“You’re being wrigglerish, and have a wrigglerish outlook on this.”_

_“Nuh-uh!”_

_“Yes.”_

_“No!”_

_“Yes.”_

_“No.”_

_“Yes.”_

_“No! I’m going to be an alpha and that’s that.” Equius sighed and rolled his eyes dramatically, but allowed the topic to be changed thereafter. Nepeta did the changing, but knew, down in her heart, that her moirail was probably right._

\--

Nepeta scratched at her stretching skin. Second pupation was an important time for a troll, but the _slowest_ transitional stage in a troll’s life. Hatching from egg to wriggler? Quick and easy! First pupation, which involved cocoons and turning from wriggler to pupa? Perigee at most! Adult molt, from nymph to fully fledged adult? Couple of weeks. 

Second pupation, going from pupa to nymph? Half, a fucking, sweep. No cocoon, no deadened husk of skin to wriggle out of, no eggshells, just the slow process of growing faster than normal and a troll’s reproductive organs turning on. And, of course, the allotment into the behavioral hierarchy. 

Tavros, Kanaya, Gamzee, and Feferi were already aware of their statuses, and Nepeta had of course prodded them for information until they’d shared (beta, alpha, omega, and alpha respectively (not that Feferi’s had ever been up for debate, no fuschia blooded troll had ever failed to be an alpha)). Nepeta’s shipping wall had been updated each night she got new information, faced with the intersectionality of emotional _and_ biological compatibility now.

Her own allotment seemed to be eluding her. By all accounts, she didn’t feel particularly different, just sort of moody lately, and upon asking her friends they all said that it was something she’d just _know._ She’d magically understand it whenever it happened, something in her biology would just trigger and suddenly things would make sense. She scratched at the skin of her belly, absurdly upset over the fact that this was, by all accounts, going to last an entire half-sweep.

AC: :33< equiusssssssssss

AC: :33< im coming ofur

AC: :33< im pissy fur no reason and want to claw the shit out of a killer robot for a little while

CT: D--> Language.

AC: :33< equihiss shut the fuck up im 

AC: :33< ugh sorry

AC: :((< i dont know whats gotten into me

CT: D--> It’s alright.

CT: D--> I think you are correct; fighting robots might behoof you in this situation.

CT: D--> Perhaps gratuitous physical violence will help soothe your troubled state, as it sometimes does mine.

CT: D--> And perhaps afterwards we might

CT: D--> Talk about your feelings

CT: D--> Should you wish to

AC: :33< that sounds great equius 

AC: :33< ill look forward to s33ing mew!

CT: D--> I must admit, I am not particularly used to being the composed one.

CT: D--> Would you like to discuss anything at present?

AC: :33< not r33lly

AC: :33< right meow i r33lly just want to grab my things and head ofur to your place so i can fight a robot or mew 

AC: :33< and then curl up on your big dumb sweaty chest and tell mew about my purroblems <>

CT: D--> I can most certainly relate.

CT: D--> Safe travels <>

Nepeta packed an overday bag, roughly shoving clean underwear and a shirt she’d sniff-checked in and kicking the stuff around her room restlessly, irritable and not understanding why, which just led to her feeling more irritable. Was this how Equius felt, at the start of his rages? She could certainly see this kind of emotion and irritation spiraling like she’d observed it doing in him, countless times.

Nepeta took a deep breath, hoisted her bag over her shoulder, and called out to Pounce.

“I’m going ofur to Equius’ for a few nights! Stay safe while I’m gone!”

Pounce meowed back at her, licking her hand with one mouth as she “spoke.” The rough meaning of her meows would translate to “stay safe, attack things before they attack you, I’ll see you again, I love you.”

“Love mew too!” Nepeta said, nuzzling her cheeks against Pounce’s. She took another breath. Her lusus helped center her, a little, and she walked out of her cave confidently. She was _fine._ She’d beat up some robots, talk to her moirail, and have a couple meals made up entirely of vegetation, it would be perfectly okay. She wasn’t looking forward to riding on the train, but the hike from her cave to the train station was nice enough. Plenty of trees and foliage and a couple stray hopbeasts she could chase after lazily, maybe the air and exercise would help clear her head.

About halfway to the train station, her ears perked. She kept her pace as it had been, not indicating yet that she’d heard the thing that was following her, but she felt her bloodpusher picking up in anticipation. It was a welcome occurrence, this foolish creature that thought it could hunt her. She was just _itching_ to sink her fangs into something, dig her claws into another creature’s _flesh._

The four mouthed mountain feline (much larger and more fearsome than its three mouthed cousin) came at Nepeta from behind, a little to her right, and she did have to admit that it was a smart place to pounce from. Almost a shame, really, that such a smart creature would choose her as a target. She dropped her bag and rolled under it, leaving only empty space where her body once had been. She spun quickly, claws out, and made a pounce of her own, throwing herself into a fray with a creature twice her size.

Naturally, of course, she won, blood up to her elbows and coating her mouth where she had tore out the thing’s throat. Her own blood rushed in her ears, a cry of victory in her lungs. How dare this thing think it could beat her, really. How funny. She was an apex predator, its superior in every way. She was fucking undefeated, she was _an alpha._

She was-

Oh.

Above the body of a slain animal, Nepeta began to laugh, the bright red blood of a beast dripping off her chin and claws and pooling around her boots. She laughed and bore her throat to the night, confident, zealous, arms outstretched and welcoming the challenges of the universe. She was an _alpha._

\--

In truth, Equius was glad that Nepeta would be arriving at his hive shortly. He’d been feeling, well, _off,_ for several nights now. At first, he’d chalked it up merely to the stresses of second pupation. He was becoming a nymph, it was only to be expected that his emotions should become even more unbalanced than usual. When he troogled second pupation, elevated sense of danger and hypertension was usually attributed to omegas, so he staunchly ignored that and chalked it up to his usual behaviors (and, truly, he had indeed usually been pretty jumpy) just, a little more exaggerated with his elevated hormonal state. Even so, he could really use a soothing hand at this particular junction.

Aurthour snuffled and gave a worried snort, and Equius reached out to pat him, before retracting his hand. Second pupation had brought an increase to his STRENGTH that he had not predicted, one that left him shattering glasses and occasionally bruising Aurthour if he was being particularly careless. He wasn’t so STRONG that he could, say, punch a robot through a wall or anything, that would just be absurd, but he was acutely aware that he was no longer like the rest of his peers, even as a particularly strong member. This was… abnormal. Atypical. He could probably conjure a whole list of synonyms, but he got the impression that increasing the number of labels would not actually help him in any manner.

He hoped Nepeta’s train arrived safely, and felt irrationally worried over it. He felt irrationally worried over _everything,_ actually, which in and of itself wasn’t too out of the ordinary except this time the intensity wasn’t transforming into frustration (which then funneled into rage). He just. Felt worried. And anxious. And breaking things didn’t help calm him down it just made him _more_ anxious and, well, he really could use his moirail. He felt a tiny bit silly over how confidently he believed that Nepeta would be able to make things alright. But, at the same time, she was his moirail. His safety. His most dearly beloved companion. She was always there for him when he needed her, and now he would be there to talk her down from whatever rage _she_ was in, and then they’d converse, and the universe would fall back into making sense again.

Aurthour returned to Equius, towel draped over one muscular and butlery arm, a tray with lusus milk balanced in his other hand. Equius took a deep breath and accepted the milk with a thanks, downing it in a go before taking the towel. He lifted it to his face and then just. Left it there. Normally he would rub, but he liked the texture and the smell and the familiarity of a clean towel; it soothed him, a little. As did Aurthour, hovering to his side, patting his shoulder and giving the gentle nicker of “I’m here for you, interact with me.”

“I suppose I am just… ill at ease,” Equius admitted to his lusus, “It is my hope that Nepeta’s arrival will help with my- er, predicament.”

Aurthour blowed out through his nostrils, a “oh good! That makes me happy to hear!” sort of noise, and Equius smiled into the cloth he still had pressed to his face. He took a deep breath, and then scrubbed, wiping sweat from his skin and moving to towel off his shoulders and arms as well. As he handed the towel back to Aurthour, the doorgrub rang, and Equius perked with nigh embarrassing eagerness.

“She’s here!” he said excitedly, abandoning embarrassment in favor of wrigglerish delight at his moirail’s arrival, and he hurried to the door to greet her. Nepeta, treating Equius’ hive as though it was her own, really only rang the doorgrub to announce her presence, and let herself in with the spare key he’d given her. The door swung open- his lock was a touch tricky and took some finagling- as he was entering into the foyer, and Equius was suddenly hit by the smell of her. Sweat and dried blood, certainly, as well as her own simple scent, but more than that now, there was something changed in her.

Something that made Equius slip softly to his knees like the action was as natural as breathing. Equius watched, lips parted in uncomprehending awe, as Nepeta’s eyes widened as they lighted on him, pupils dilating and nostrils flaring. Equius’ brain wasn’t doing a very good job of keeping up with whatever was happening, a blankness seizing him, but he could feel awareness of something he didn’t want to examine creeping up on him. Nepeta crossed the foyer, leaving the door wide open behind her, and Equius opened his mouth to scold her about that, she knew better than to leave the door open, he’d told her at least a million times to close the door when she came inside.

Her hand was on the back of his head, holding him by the hair, pulling him up, her other arm around his back and pressing him close to her as she bent and pressed her face into his neck. He bore it instinctively, his arms reaching up and clasping around his rock, his diamond, his moirail. He breathed deep and took in the smell of her, here close, thoughts scattered. Wasn’t he doing something? He was- she smelled amazing. Good god she smelled like _safety;_ she smelled like _home._

“Mine,” she purred against his throat, hugging him close.

“Yours,” he answered easily, because while there might have been a lot happening in his head that he wasn’t entirely processing, _that_ , at least, he knew with all the certainty in all the world, in all the universe. He was hers, he belonged entirely to her, his whole diamond, his whole self, everything he had to offer he laid down at her feet. He was hers, and she would keep him safe, keep him stable, make everything okay.

Oh...

He was an omega.

\--

The moments after the two of them first united after learning their allotments were something of a haze, in both their minds. Aurthour closed the door and helped Nepeta help Equius to his feet, the two of them stumbled into a pile, and Equius buried his face into Nepeta’s chest with no indication of letting go. Then the shakes came, horror sinking ever slowly into his bones as the ramifications of what he was crested over his personal horizon.

“Shoooooooosh, Equius,” Nepeta crooned at him, petting his hair and stroking her thumb over his shoulder blade. 

“I’m an omega,” Equius whispered hoarsely.

“I know, diamond, I know, shoosh, shoosh, it’s alright.”

“I- I’m an _omega.”_

“I know you are, Equius, it’s alright, shoosh, shoosh.” She stroked him gently as he trembled, clinging to her as one might cling to a tether in the vast emptiness of space. He felt undone, weightless, like the whole world around him was shifting and dizzy and she was the last solid thing.

“I _can’t_ be. It’s shameful enough that Makara is-”

“Shoosh.”

“-but for me to be as well, I- I’m a _highblood.”_

“Twenty purrcent of the population is still twenty purrcent, Sweatquius. Being a highblood doesn’t make you immune.”

“We’re _supposed_ to be alphas, or at the very least betas.”

“Shoosh. That’s all highblood propaganda and you know it.” Nepeta papped him twice, sharply, jarring him out of that line of thought briefly.

“I am supposed to be _strong.”_

“Shoosh,” Nepeta lifted his face and kissed him softly on the forehead. “You are, Equius, you’re very strong. And you know what? You’re going to be strong enough to get through this, okay? You’re still you. You’re just, a little different than you thought you might be.”

Equius trembled quietly a moment, then turned his head, pressing his mouth into her palm and squeezing his eyes shut.

“You’re an alpha,” he murmured quietly against her skin.

Nepeta couldn’t help the swell of pride, her grin. “Yeah I am. Did I call it or did I fucking call it?”

“Language,” he mumbled, seeking the familiarity of the banter far more than he wished for any actual change in her behavior. On a certain level, he knew there were some battles, with her, that he would never win. He did what he could for her, he always, always did, but he needed to be selective about what he came down firmly on.

“I found out when I killed a four mouthed mountain feline.”

Equius snorted. “It seems fitting.”

“You find out when I came in the door?”

Equius nodded and rested his head back on her chest. “Somewhere between you calling me yours and Aurthour showing up.”

“It’s a night of revelations,” Nepeta said, stroking Equius’s hair again. “Shoosh, diamond. It’s not the end of the world.”

“It’s humiliating,” he whispered bitterly, biting back tears.

“No it’s not,” she soothed, “no it’s not. It’s just a normal part of being alive. We’ll- we’ll get used to it, you know? Sure, we always thought we’d be betas-”

“I was under the impression that you didn’t.”

“You know that thing you do where you lie to yourself so hard you end up believing it?”

“I don’t do that.”

“It was sort of like that for me, but instead of lying hard enough I believed it I just lied enough to cover up that I knew it was a silly thing to hope fur deep down. And yes you do.”

“No I don’t.”

“Yes you do.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“No.”

“Yes you do now shoosh.” Nepeta papped him firmly again.

Equius grumbled but allowed himself to be quieted, the world feeling a little more solid around him. Like he could stand up and the floor wouldn’t fall out from underneath him, anymore. He also felt less like crying, which wasn’t a very highblooded way to act.

“It’ll be alright,” Nepeta said again, staring at Equius’s ceiling. “We’ll adapt. We can adapt to anything, as long as we have each other, right?”

Equius propped himself up on his elbows, his frown morphing into one of concern. “Nepeta?”

Nepeta gave him a grin, but when his thumb brushed gently against the bone of her cheek she let it drop, eyes drifting to the side. “I don’t know how I feel about this, Equius. Sure, part of me is really really happy that I turned out to be an alpha, but part of me… doesn’t know?” She leaned into his palm, gripping the side of his shirt on that side and his shoulder on the other. “I’m just, everything feels really scattered right now, you know?”

Equius nodded.

“Like, I’ve wanted this my whole life and now I have it but I don’t know what to do with it.”

Equius nodded again. “Our moirallegiance was much like that, for me.”

Nepeta “pffft”ed and giggled at him. “Dork.”

“You’re the dork.”

“No you.”

“No you.”

“No you.”

“No y-”

“Anyway the thing is, I don’t know what’s going on in my brain right now. I don’t know what’s going on with my body and everything’s changing and I can’t- I don’t-” Nepeta fell silent, searching for words. “I’m scared of changing, Equius.”

Equius shivered and nodded. “Shoosh,” he crooned, but the effect was a touch ruined by his voice cracking. It was… doing that a lot, lately. He was also getting an uncomfortable number of zits on his face, back, and shoulders, but he supposed that was only to be expected with the amount of sweat he regularly drenched himself in.

Nepeta, at least, seemed to find his cracking voice funny, and giggled at him.

“Shoosh,” she echoed, _her_ voice staying perfectly even.

“Shoosh,” he mimicked back at her, and succeeded that time. She pouted a little, however.

“Aw.”

“Nepeta don’t be rude.”

“But when your voice cracks it’s so _cute!”_ she exclaimed, her own voice cracking on the “cute.”

“Ha!” he barked at her, briefly victorious, and she swatted at his face and turned them so she pinned him to the pile. 

“Ha ha!”

Equius went to answer “ha ha ha,” but was suddenly struck with how silly this was, and broke out in genuine giggles. Nepeta smiled down at him, face melting into some loose sort of joy, and kissed his nose.

“We’re gonna be just fine,” she promised softly when he contained himself, and he lifted a hand to caress her cheek.

“We’ll be fine,” he repeated, finding comfort in the words. Nepeta was here, in between him and the rest of the world, he was safe, he was fine, and he would continue to be fine, moving forward. “This does… change some things, however,” he said, brow creasing again. Nepeta pet at that furrow wishing she had the ability to banish it permanently. But then again, if he wasn’t constantly fussing and arguing and making a big mess of things in his head, he wouldn’t be her Equius, now would he?

“I guess so.”

“What… will our relationship look like, from here out?”

Nepeta shrugged. “Probably no change?” She couldn’t imagine they’d start treating each other too differently. “I don’t think being an omega is going to stop you from being a pushy fussy jerk, and me being an alpha just means it makes sense whenever I giggle and don’t take you any more seriously than you need to be taken, right?”

Equius shrugged. “I guess.” He wasn’t feeling particularly bossy or fussy right then, in truth, he was feeling scared and small and desperately grateful for Nepeta’s presence, so he told her as much.

“Shoosh,” Nepeta crooned at him, her voice cracking again. He pressed their foreheads together and squeezed his eyes shut. She was here. It was fine. It was _fine._ It would be okay.

“Then,” he started hesitantly, “We promise not to change?”

Nepeta smiled at him and lifted herself up so she could extend her pinky finger. “No changing! It’s us, and just us, and it’ll always be just us!”

“It is, and always will be, just us,” Equius said, nodding and trying to sound grave, if it weren’t for the fact that his voice cracked _again_ halfway through. Oh, this was going to be terribly troublesome. Even so, their fingers linked and Nepeta kissed the back of his pinky’s knuckle, followed by Equius kissing hers. Pact sealed, Nepeta curled back up on top of him, and he draped an arm over her small body. He marvelled, as he was sometimes wont to do, at how something so small could be so ferocious, precious, and strong. He opened his mouth to ask again for reassurance, but instead just flexed his pinky, and was soothed. He could feel the ghost of her touch, could carry it with him. They’d promised.

\--

“Okay so now that efurryone is _finally_ allotted, I’ve managed to successfully complete the update of my shipping wall,” Nepeta announced proudly, hands on her hips and back to Equius, who was grudgingly seated in her hive.

“Nepeta,” he said tiredly, “You’ve already told me all of this over trollian I hardly see the necessity of experiencing it all a second time in purrson.”

“Purrson.”

“Person. Like I said.”

“You said ‘purrson’.”

“No I didn’t.”

“Yes you did!”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“No.”

“Anyway, my ships,” Nepeta said, cutting the irresistible tangent off. “I’m currently thinking Feferi and Karkat could be a good match in flush, there’s Terezi and me of course, and then Terezi would also be good in pitch with Kanaya, I think. Sollux and Feferi have something going on and I know it’s leaning kind of flush, but I think they’d be better suited pitch. Also, you remember that old flush crush on Karkat I had? Definitely has switched pitch by this point. Then there’s...”

Equius listened, face neutral, as Nepeta spoke but his attention was wrested away when Pounce- firmly believing she was still lap-sized- decided to make use of Equius’s legs. He attempted to lift her off and redeposit her on the floor, but she meowed in distaste and reasserted herself on his lap. Nepeta cut off and turned, looking back at her moirail and lusus, then smiled fondly, her nose scrunching up in affection.

“Hey Pounce,” she greeted, walking away from her shipping wall to scratch her lusus under the chin for a second. While she was there, she kissed Equius on top of his forehead. “Hey.”

“Hello.”

“How’re you feeling?” she asked, idle and not really expecting a conversation to come from it.

“A little anxious, actually.”

“Oh! Is Pounce bothering you? I can pick her up!”

“No, no, that is not the case. I’m just-” Equius cut himself off, trying to formulate the words. Nepeta stroked his face as she waited, a soft touch on the cheek of her special boy.

“My danger radar keeps pinging false positives,” Equius said finally. “And I get scared and lock up over asinine, commonplace, hivehold objects, or when I don’t hear Aurthour approaching, or at anything that casts a shadow or makes a noise and it’s just, frustrating. And I’m in a near constant state of anxiety over- nothing.”

Nepeta nodded along and kissed Equius’s nose. “I understand. My danger radar keeps pinging false positives too, but instead of getting scared I get- really aggressive? I’ve attacked perfectly normal trees and bushes and stuff a lot lately. Plants that I know are there and that I’ve seen every night for sweeps, but tonight’s the night they’re going to attack so I have to attack them first.”

Equius snorted, and nodded into her hand. “I am much the same, but instead of punching things I lock up.”

“You do lock up a lot.”

“I know, I hate it.”

“Can I help at all? At least with the feeling anxious thing right now.” Equius cupped his hand around Nepeta’s and pressed his mouth to her skin- rough with callouses and vaguely scratchy, like Pounce’s tongue, to a certain degree. 

“Give me an order?” Equius asked quietly, not liking how vulnerable he sounded. A twisted, backbending part of him wanted to demand that she give him an order so that he might save some kind of face, but this was his moirail. Vulnerability was allowed, here. This was his _alpha._ He could submit anything and lay it down at her feet, including an open bloodpusher. “Nothing- it doesn’t have to be- just. Something. Anything. Give me something achievable, some direction to my life and actions. It doesn’t have to be difficult or grand I just, want to have something I can be certain in doing. Please.”

Nepeta let go of Equius’s face so she could pick up Pounce and move her to a nearby lounge plank. Then she placed herself in Equius’s lap, smiling at her diamond.

“Kiss me on the cheek,” she ordered, holding Equius around the neck. He took a breath, a little unstable, and kissed her cheek. “Good! Now kiss my nose!” Equius chuckled shakily and kissed her nose, his hands resting around her waist lightly. “Nooooooow, kiss my forehead!” Equius lifted a hand to her jaw and tilted it down so he could gently press his lips to her forehead. Finding comfort, he left his lips there, eyes closed, and brushed his thumb lightly over the skin of her cheek.

“Good, Equius, well done,” Nepeta praised sweetly. Then she giggled and lifted her head up and nipped his nose.

Equius spluttered, then started to attempt to scold her for her tomfoolery when she shooshed him and kissed his cheek. “Now, pick me up!”

“You’re already on my lap.”

“So stand up and carry me, silly!”

Equius stood, huffing, and withstood the affectionate onslaught of Nepeta nuzzling her face against his. 

“You’re smiling,” Nepeta teased, singsong.

“I am not,” Equius said, but could feel his own begrudging smile on his face.

“You absolutely are.” Nepeta kissed him again. “And it is the cutest. Now, take me to the culinary block!” 

Equius huffed and walked that way. Nepeta’s cave was decently sized, but it was hardly expansive. There was only so much space that Equius could possibly need to cross. 

“Good! Now set me on the counter and fill two glasses with water.”

Equius was embarrassingly calmed by the sequence of orders, the easy cycle of order-action-praise. He handed a cup to Nepeta and drank from his, realizing how thirsty he was, as he often did, as soon as the water touched his lips. He… sweat a lot. It was pretty natural for him to need a ridiculously gargantuan quantity of water in order to keep up with it. And salt. He went through so many electrolytes. 

“Good boy, Equius, see? You’re good. You’re so good, Equius,” Nepeta assured him. “I have trail mix in one of these cupboards somewhere, go look for it!”

Equius searched dutifully, finding it after much scrutiny. “Nepeta, your hive is a mess. You will clean it immediately.”

“Nah,” Nepeta said idly, taking a bag of trail mix that Equius offered her. “Don’t feel like it.”

“Nepeta it is a mess you will clean in here immediately.”

“You do that stuff though,” Nepeta whined.

Equius glared at her a moment, at a standstill. He knew, however, that there would be no winning out against his alpha. With an aggravated huff, he shoved a fistful of trail mix into his mouth. Nepeta laughed at him.

“You goober!” she teased, her voice cracking.

“I’m rearranging your entire culinary block while I’m here.”

“Yeah, sure,” Nepeta said idly, tossing a pretzel into her mouth. “Anyway, back to my ships,” she started up again, chatting at Equius while he moved and stacked and organized. 

\--

Omegas went into heat, alphas went into rut, and betas could flip into either depending on the length of exposure to an alpha or omega around them. It was the natural way of things, Equius knew this, intellectually. It didn’t make his own treacherous body any easier to deal with, however. 

“Easy, diamond,” Nepeta crooned at him. They’d agreed to live together somewhere around a sweep ago, when an earthquake caused a cave-in that nearly cost Nepeta her lusus’s life. Lucky for both of them, Pounce and Aurthour got along well- after some initial trepidation. Equius’s hive smelled no better for the additions, and he’d ordered a second hunger trunk- er, fridge, he called it a fridge and was absolutely not picking up on Nepeta’s dialect- so Nepeta could store her meat away from the food that he ate.

“It’s _painful,”_ he complained, hiding his face in the crook of her knee while she stroked his hair across her lap. His whole lower body was a mess of arousal so sharp and hot that it hurt, and he had to actively be reminded not to clench his legs, abdomen, and jaw, lest he damage himself from the constant tension. 

“And since it’s painful…” Nepeta started, with that tone that Equius knew meant she was about to say something he wouldn’t like. He groaned. “Maybe you should consider hooking up with someone in our cohort.”

“Absolutely not.”

“Told you,” she said idly over her shoulder, in the direction of Pounce and Aurthour. Equius wasn’t sure which one she was speaking to, but it might as well have been both. “Equius, listen, you’re hurting and it’s gross and there’s no reason for any of this! I know you don’t have a flushed quadrant, and I know two omegas can’t do jack shit for each other-”

“Language.”

“-when it comes to heat, but hooking up could be an easy solution! What about Feferi? You like her, right? And she’s an alpha, which means it’d be really easy for the two of you to take care of each other!”

Equius felt his face burn hot with shame at the very idea. “I cannot just- with someone so high and noble- it’d be- absolutely not! Feferi is- I’m- no!”

“Shoosh you gigantic disaster,” Nepeta said firmly, papping him. She sighed, “I’d say Kanaya, next, but between Karkat and I I think the two of us have gathered enough incriminating evidence to say that she’s awfully picky when it comes to partners she takes. Namely: girls.”

Equius grumbled, coming down from the fluster that thinking about Feferi, naked, doing things to him, had sent him into.

“Which means we’re fresh out of alphas in our cohort! Feferi’s the only alpha that could fuck you-”

“Language!” Equius squeaked, turning blue again.

“-and I’m pretty sure just thinking about it too hard could kill you. Alright so,” Nepeta pulled out her tablet and opened one of her many, many excel sheets she had for shipping. “Karkat’s flushed quadrant is open.”

“That nasty off-spectrum gremlin?” Equius griped, frowning and muttering into Nepeta’s leg.

“Heehee, he is pretty nasty isn’t he. A gross boy in a cohort full of gross boys.” She bent to kiss him, “He’d be perfect for you! Besides, I’m not trying to set you up in each other’s _actual_ quadrants, I’m just trying to find someone you can hook up with long enough to scratch the itch. I could arrange it for you, diamond, take care of the ‘talking to other people’ thing so you don’t have to. Let’s set you up with somebody. Doesn’t even have to be Karkat, here, let’s look at who else might work.” Nepeta began scrolling through the rest of the excel sheet.

Equius huffed, grumbled some more, and then forced himself limp in Nepeta’s lap. She giggled and kissed him again, then nuzzled his cheek, showing off her flexibility and making him smile against his will. He trusted her so dearly. He could trust her to set him up with others. “I am, as ever, yours to direct as you believe best, my alpha.”


End file.
